Baby Boomers: Miley Cyrus and the hypocrisy of the morality police

Baby Boomers: Miley Cyrus and the hypocrisy of the morality police
By Ray Hanania

Most parents have tuned out the details of their children’s lives. What I mean is that we share in their music, allow them to play all kinds of online Internet games, participate in social media and have pretty much allowed them to watch almost anything on Cable TV.

And then there is how we react to things that we don’t like. For example, this past week, many parents were outraged at the salacious dance performed by Miley Cyrus, the former Disney teenage actress and singer once known by the Hannah Montana family-friendly character.

We loved Hannah Montana. But apparently, a lot of the same parents do not love Miley Cyrus.

They think she is too wild.

She was on stage this past week dancing in a very sexually provocative and seductive manner during the Video Music Awards (VMA) with hit singer and songwriter Robin Thicke who sang his chart busting song, Blurred Lines.

Blurred Lines has a snappy, funky beat. It’s one of those songs that grabs you and everyone loves it. We love the music, although most of us don’t really listen too closely to the lyrics. In fact, I would argue the older you get the fewer lyrics we acknowledge at all.

Many people criticized Cyrus because she was acting more like a porn-star than a former Disney singer and dancer. She wore a skimpy, skin-tight, flesh-colored two piece that might have made topless women at the popular Hedonism resorts in Negril blush.

She waved a baseball and football “hand” with a pointing finger around in a not-so-PG manner. More X-Rated, in fact.

Right away, adults watching her were thinking of Biblical King Herod and the dance that Salome did in exchange for cutting off the head of John the Baptist.

Blasphemous!

But that’s exactly what’s wrong with our society today.

Our morality is lazy. It’s cheap. It spreads its legs faster than a World War II whore, to use an ancient icon of sin.

I say lazy because audiences that complained about Miley Cyrus and her seductive, X-Rated performance on the TV music special, didn’t seem bothered at all by the lyrics of Robin Thicke’s song, Blurred Lines.

There are no blurred lines in the song’s lyrics. It’s clear what’s being said and intended, if the public were to really listen. But we love the music so much, we don’t care if the singer said “maker” or really “n–ga” in the lyrics. It’s hard to tell when your listening to the words that are filled with even worse language and more than suggestive sexual acts.

So we criticize Miley Cyrus because we think she is easy to hate. A former Disney star who was supposed to embody wholesomeness and purity because our children used to love her Hannah Montana Character.

Yet we close our eyes and minds to the reality.

What Miley Cyrus did was act out the lyrics of the song. Her dance WAS the song exactly. Everything she did was suggested in the song, including when she bent over and pushed her rear-end into the crotched of Robin Thicke, because that is exactly detailed in the song.

The song is about a good girl who is being serenaded to leave the comfort of her PG life and become a whore. Nasty, is the preferred word in the lyrics. And the B-word is used a few times to describe what she is really like inside.

Blurred Lines is about the line between decency and indecency. The only mature person in this controversy is Miley Cyrus, not the blind critics who are yelling to burn the witch, or the b—- at the bonfire of phony American morality.

I say give Miley Cyrus a break. And if you don’t like her dance moves – maybe you should clean out the wax in your ears and listen to the lyrics of that song you love so much and grind to while driving your car or shake to while on your Caribbean vacations or dance along with the kids when it comes on the home radio.

Stop rattling your brain by nodding your head to the beat of Blurred Lines and listen to the lyrics, folks. You might have second thoughts about attacking Miley Cyrus, who has the courage to at least be more honest than most of you.

3 replies

Reblogged this on Thoughts, musings, and ramblings and commented:
Obviously my post on “Blurred Lines” came out of its renewed hatred after Miley Cyrus’s performance. I really enjoy the discussion about Miley Cyrus here (and agree with most of it) and I thought it was a good interpretation of the song to take into account.
Plus, I really enjoy this phrase “Our morality is lazy. It’s cheap. It spreads its legs faster than a World War II whore, to use an ancient icon of sin” which is relevant to so much more than just this topic!

Seth Frantzman, Op-Ed Editor of the Jerusalem Post, engages in a candid conversation analyzing the March 17 Israeli election results, challenges facing Israeli-Palestinian peace, and the reality of the hard right Likud party of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Centrist Zionist Union led by Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni. Frantzman points out that most […]

Journalist Mohammed Najib based in Ramallah, Palestine, discusses the Israeli election results and the strong performance of the Arab Israeli candidates who took 13 seats in the Knesset and is the 3rd largest party in the Israeli government. Netanyahu’s rightwing Likud Party took 30 seats and the centrist Zionist Union took the 2nd highest performance with 2 […]

Civil rights attorney Michael Deutsch discusses the case of Rasmea Odeh who was convicted of lying on her citizenship paperwork in her immigration application. Odeh, who had served 10 years in prison in Israel after she was tortured and accused of participating in an act of “terrorism” in 1969, was sentenced to 18 months in prison. The sentence last week is […]

Search this Site

About Ray Hanania

RAY HANANIA is an award winning columnist with Creators Syndicate, media consultant, radio host and Palestinian American stand-up comedian. (Journalism and comedy? What's the difference?).

Hanania is a columnist for the Southwest News-Herald in Chicago, and the Saudi Gazette in the Middle East. He is managing editor of The Arab Daily News. Named Best Ethnic American Columnist for 2007 by the New America Media, Hanania received the 2009 Mehdi Courage in Journalism Award, the 2010 Sigma Delta Chi National Award for Column Writing, and four Lisagor Awards from the Society of Professional Journalist's largest chapter, the Chicago Headline Club.

He began his journalism career in 1976 and covered Chicago City Hall for 16 years from the end of the administration of Mayor Richard J. Daley to the beginning of the term of Mayor Richard M. Daley..

A former Chicago City Hall reporter and columnist, Hanania provides informed insight into the complexities of Chicagoland politics and the Middle East. CLICK HERE to view his complete Bio?

Follow Blog via Email

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 130 other followers

Archives

Books & author products

ARABS OF CHICAGOLAND
A history of Arab immigration to Chicago. Arabs first settled in Chicagoland in the mid-19th century, when immigrants from all parts of the world were flowing steadily into the U.S. As tensions in the Arab world flared, immigration increased—the first to arrive were Lebanese Christians, followed by Muslim Palestinians. Today, there are more than 250,000 Arabs in the Chicago area, with equal numbers of Christians and Muslims. A part of the fabric of Chicago, Arabs serve in many roles, from business leaders to elected officials to judges, doctors, engineers, journalists, and more. In the wake of the tragedy of September 11, 2001, Arab Americans have come under great scrutiny and have suffered much misunderstanding. Now, this book, which explores their integral role in Chicagoland’s growth, is especially important.

RAY HANANIA'S HUMOR BOOK
A collection of essays on the experiences growing up Arab and Palestinian living in a Jewish community in America on Chicago's South Side. Includes humor and anecdotal stories along with serious topic discussion. The first book to detail Arab American life first published in the United States in 1996. This 2nd Edition is published in 2007. Get it in eBook. Click here.

ARAB AMERICAN MEDIA DIRECTORY
The ONLY directory of Arab American ethnic media -- newspapers, radio and TV. Plus organizations and religious institutions and more. Only $45. Includes emails, mailing addresses, web sites and other data where available. Updated every year.